Article 1

June 16, 2010

A couple of days ago, I talked about my philosophy on teaching with the emphasis of theory and experience going hand-in-hand in order to develop a course, curriculum, syllabus, and lesson plan that work. The same ideas and principles are established in the first chapter, "Teachers as course developers," in Kathleen Grave's textbook of the same namesake. Theory, both theories in the general and the personal sense, and experience provide coherence and direction for the teacher (2). I like her description that teachers in the field are learners too, in which they incorporate their own experiences and prior understandings into new contexts, and continue to modify them into their teaching craft in order to develop a course that benefits the teachers and their students (2). Although curriculum development comes with guidelines, models, and principles that can greatly help a teacher, experience is highly important too because the teacher is the one who knows her situations in relation to her students. I like how the author words this idea: "experience... enables teachers to make sense of the theories and expertise of others because it gives them opportunities to clarify their understanding of theory and make it concrete" (6).

Another valuable insight that I learned from the reading is the stages of course development. Stage 1 is the planning of the course (in which goals and priorities are identified); Stage 2 is the actual teaching of the course; Stage 3 is modifying/replanning the course; and lastly, Stage 4 is the reteaching of the course.
The process does not end with the last stage however, as modifications and reteaching can occur several times in order to improve on the lesson or meet the needs of the learners (4). Throughout this entire process is the cyclical, ongoing assessment and decision making process. Part of the decision making is problematizing- the teacher defines the problem in a concrete situation and find a workable solution for it (5, 6). This active process' purpose, according to one of my professors, is for the improvement and maximizing of learning of the students. This is the purpose of teaching and the duty of teachers.


Images
Rodrigues, Andres. Image of planning. [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://www.masternewmedia.org/images/planning-choice-among-multiple-roads_id267012_size350.jpg.
JIU. Image of a teacher. [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://www.womansday.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/wd2/content/crafts/teacher-s-photo-contest-easter-crafts/526483-1-eng-US/Teacher-s-Photo-Contest-Easter-Crafts_featured_article_628x371.jpg.